Birthday surprise made at home

Barathraam turned 3 years on Jan 18th.  We wanted to make his day special by making something. We made a pop-up teddy bear birthday card. It was quite easy and I decided that I will make many more such cards and give surprises to kids.

Here is the card I made, and a small video showcasing the surprise teddy bear.

Learning week days in fun way!

Days, weeks, months and years cycle could be very natural for adults. But for young kids it is quite interesting, especially when they find Saturdays and Sundays being at home relaxing around without going to daycare or school.

To help them understand the days of the week and its cycle, we made a simple days of the week clock to indicate what day it is. To add fun to this activity, we drew some play activities that our kid could do on those days! Here is a picture of how the clock looked. Its easy to make at home using a chart, a cardboard pointer and some glue and pins. Try it out and make it everyday fun activity for kids while learning days of the week.

Rama bhaktha Hanuman

January 11, 2013 - Amavasai (No moon day) in the Tamil month of Margazhi is an auspicious day, as it marks the birthday of Hanuman - the devoted Rama Bhaktha. Hanuman is an embodiment of prowess, wisdom and humble (prakramam, gyanam and vinayam in Sanskrit). By the thought of Him, we could get inspired and do good things. Valmiki while writing Ramayana, has dedicated a Chapter by his name which is known as "Sundara Kandam". There are many stories and events with profound meaning has been told in that Kandam.
I would like to share one story which I used to remember whenever I am facing hurdles in my actions. Hanuman with His acumen in understanding things has displayed a strong message to us.

"PRELUDE:
The army of Vanaras (monkey warriors) along with the captain Angad,  old bear Jambavan, Hanuman was standing on the shore of Rameshwaram, near South TamilNadu. They were almost lost hope in finding Sita and told, "Efforts of Ram, Lakshman, Sabari, Sugriva and Jatayu are all in vain. Jatayu even gave up his life while trying to save Sita from Ravana when he abducted Her. This is very bad and sad!" On hearing this conversation, an old vulture by name Sampati who was sitting nearby asked them, if they were talking about his brother Jatayu. The vanaras told their story in search of Sita and how Jatayu lost his life. Sampati became sad on hearing this and with his sharp eyesight he told that Ravana has kept Sita in the next side of this shore in a place called Lanka.
With this hint, the Vanara sena now decided to send someone to the other part of the shore to search for Sita. Jambavan told that Hanuman has the needed calibre to reach the other part of the shore and carry out the mission of searching Sita. With utmost humility. Hanuman also agreed to this plan. He addressed everyone that He will put all his efforts in searching Sita and with Lord Rama's blessings He will be able to find Sita.

STORY:
He told thus to his fellow warriors and started to fly while paying his obeisance to Lord Rama and other Gods. As He started flying He suddenly saw a mountain growing taller and bigger and therefore obstructing his way. The mountain spoke to him saying, "Hey Hanuman, Pranams (Greetings). My name is Mainaka mountain. I was ordered by the God of this Ocean where I am residing, to offer you some good place to rest. Please relax yourself on my surface and get charged by eating the fruits on it. After a while, you could continue your mission of searching Sita. Kindly accept my offer."
Hearing this Hanuman replied, "Hey parvata (mountain), thanks for your offer. Indeed, it would be great to take rest during my long flight to other part of the shore. But certainly, it would delay my mission to reach Lanka by today night. If I take rest now, I might not have enough time to search Sita in Lanka. As I want to carry out Ram's mission in search of Sita with utmost duty, kindly forgive me to deny your request." Saying so, Hanuman continued flying across the ocean.

As he went some more distance, he saw a female daemon by name Surasa. She was big enough as Hanuman and obstructing His way she yelled as "I have got a boon that all beings passing this place should first pass through my mouth and only then move from here. So get inside my mouth before proceeding." Hanuman replied softly that He is in a mission to search Sita wife of Rama and so, he would enter her mouth once he complete the mission. But Surasa did not pay attention to it. She enlarged her body twice as Hanuman's and standed opposite to His way. Seeing this Hanuman also enlarged His body larger than Surasa, which made Surasa again to become larger than Hanuman. This happened repeatedly till Surasa has grown very large like a big mountain. Taking this as a good chance, Hanuman shrunk His body till the size of a thumb and quickly entered her mouth and came away. Then He told her, that her boon was now fulfilled, therefore He can continue his flight. Saying so, Hanuman continued flying across the ocean.

As He was flying, He suddenly experienced that He was not able to fly fast and He felt that some force is dragging Him down. When He saw on the surface of Ocean, He saw a big female daemon by name Simhika who has the power to stop beings by catching their shadows. Simhika has been pulling Hanuman's shadows and thereby stopped him from flying. Simhika opened her big mouth and yelled that she is going to swallow Hanuman. On seeing this, Hanuman brought all His strength together and gave her a punch in the face, then entered her mouth and came outside by tearing her into pieces.
Thus after killing her, He was able to continue His flight to Lanka.

After over coming these obstacles, Hanuman safely reached Lanka on time during night and started laying out plan to search inside Lanka.

On a careful observation of this story of obstacles and Hanuman's way of dealing with them, it could be seen that he used three main qualities needed to face challenges while we are in a mission.
Firstly, we may encounter few events while setting out to achieve our mission which are not really problems. But those events if satisfied will consume our time, energy and could possibly create a lag in our objectives. Therefore it is important to identify these events which unnecessarily consume our time and energy and which is not beneficial to our mission. This is what Hanuman did with Mainaka mountain and He won such obstacle by carefully avoiding them in a gentle and appropriate manner.  Hanuman's vinayam (humble) and skillful talk helped in this occasion.

Secondly, some obstacles demand us to go through the suffering, like Surasa who wanted Hanuman to fulfill her boon. In those cases, we have to use our wisdom and brains to win those obstacles. Hanuman with His astute wisdom won Surasa by enlarging His body and suddenly shrinking it.

Thirdly, some obstacles are got ridden off only by showing our physical valor and strength, like escaping from a beating. Hanuman used His prowess to win over the obstacle of Simhika.

So from Hanuman's reactions to these obstacles, we could understand, that whenever we are faced with some challenges, problems and obstacles, it is important to understand the nature of the obstacle and use appropriate skill (humble, wisdom and prowess) to win over it.

By prostrating under the feet of Ram bhaktha Hanuman, let us pray that He would bestow us with these skills and help us in facing challenges.

Namaskarams.
Source: From Smt. Visaka Hariji's SundaraKandam Hari Katha.


PS: Please share any thoughts you have got on reading this story.

Life in a startup company!

Whenever I hear success stories about big companies or small companies which have made a feat, I would get goosebumps and hooked up completely on it. Especially when I read lines saying how it all started from a garage or a room in their house and how they could hit the headlines of the newspapers later. Sometimes, out of sheer regular office boredom work, I have even imagined how it would have been, if I was part of that small team! The team which brought in the wonderful product that all of us are using now.

Time indeed had come! But for a short while though. I was given an opportunity in a small ambitious start up company which aims to reap benefits of wind power at high altitudes. I never really hoped that I would get an interview call when I applied for the developer position in this start up company. It was like a cake-walk for me during the interview, that I simply made them flat with the knowledge I had acquired all these years! However, my hunch for being selected was the airplane terms that I used which were highly relevant to the work they are doing. I learned terms like ailerons, flaps, fuselage etc when I taught my son "parts of an airplane!" and I believe that helped me to get through this interview :-) (and, of course God's wish as well).

I joined the team, knowing that I will be there only for 2 months and with God's wish and more investors pouring in money, I may continue. Isn't taking risk the first trait needed to be part of a start up team? So I accepted the offer!

After many years of experience in working for big companies like Nokia, I prepared myself mentally on how it would be to work in a start up.However, there were still some surprises! The work in fact, demanded more working time and faster response for all the assignments. So no excuses to relax. And, remember the assignments might also include ones which are  different than our previous experience like in my case from web page design to trash clean up.

Two months just went and I had learned also things which are essential for a start up company from day one! Thought it would be useful to all those including me, who are aspiring to build upon your idea and so here I share them.

• How to plan and manage the activities and tasks? You need to have some software which satisfies the purpose on hand (there are many free cloud based software like "Zoho" with limited options). The software will essentially give the power to prioritize your activities and measure your performance. Ah, needless to mention, visualizing the work you have done these weeks does add confidence in your activity and future work.
• Version control is equally important. So if you have some code based projects, having a handy version control will solve umpteen problems that would pop up in later stages. I do not have knowledge on other domains like mechanical, but for software based projects Git is a very handy version control.
• Have your eyes and ears wide open and look for possibilities to collaborate or rope in investors from diverse fields. Certainly, there is more probability that you do not get response from many of them! However, keep trying as there is some reason behind ignoring our requests. At the same time, do not spend more time with those, who are least bothered about your idea. Time is indeed as precious as money for start ups.
• Be prepared to spend time on accounts and other operational activities which grabs time from focus on developing and building the idea.
• Things change fast, that the work going on currently might seem irrelevant. Judiciously plan the work with long term focus and include ifs and buts during planning. Scenario planning will help in coping up with the surprises and changes.
• Last but not the least, cheer yourself and your co-workers often for the work done and that would keep up the spirits high! Indeed it is the spirit which is driving a human to be passionate.

Two months might be shorter time to understand much of start up dynamics and I am sure I have more to learn. Would be great to hear from you, the reader and your experience.

PS: It is indeed bad that I cannot continue my job in this start up and therefore could not see how life in a start up turns into a job in a flourishing company. BUT, it seems God has some better plans for me :-)

Learning about animals in fun way!

It is always fun for kids to look at animals around them and those in forests. Animals shape, sounds they make, food they eat and their different parts are always interesting for kids. We found an easy and fun way to make them learn about them by creating a poster scene at home wall. On one side we had pasted home and a garden using colored chart paper and the other side a small hill with trees around. We got some stickers of wild and domestic animals. Barathraam got interested in pasting those stickers of animals and understood slowly what are wild animal and domestic animals. Initially, he was head over heels on this activity that he just wanted to paste all at one go! It was indeed difficult to make him wait for next day to paste one more to his animal gallery.

Its an easy activity to do and I am sure kids would love doing it.
Needless to mention, having it as a visual backdrop will help them revise about these animals often.

Age to start this activity: Two and half years+

My childhood Navarathri days and the transformation!

Navarathri festival which spans for nine days is one of the festival which I cherish forever. Navarathri corresponds to nine (Nava) nights(Rathri). Navarathri is celebrated five times a year and the Maha Navarathri which starts from Amavasya in the Tamil month of Puratasi (today) is the most commonly celebrated one. It has always been a fun to dress up and go around homes, be it a close relative or a new neighbor and invite them to get Tamboolam (betel leaf and nut) at our home. I was fortunate to get good friends during my childhood and we turned to be a fun loving, like minded group. Four or five of us, including my brother, start the evening with a typical cloth bag on one hand and haldi kumkum on another. Starting from our near by neighbors, we then continue to reach out to our friends at a distant place. This hopping goes on, till we are either stomach full eating all varieties of sundal (kind of dhal recipe) from each home or we have realized that it is nearing 8PM and we are expected to be back at home.

Sundal is one of the highlights of this festival which is kind of a driving factor for all the kids to visit and invite people. Sundal is offered to Goddess Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswathi during Navarathri evenings at all home. It had been fun to taste the sundal on our way to the next home. Hmm, needless to say we have started grading homes based on the taste and quantity of the sundal.

Apart from this delicious sundal, there have been many more in this festival, that draws our attention as we grew older. The stacking of various dolls, idols and decoration of the stairs, having a theme based park etc adds beauty to the aura experienced at each home. It was once, when we took all the efforts to visit someone far-off, to have a look at their cricket based doll set and a marriage doll set. People and of course businesses flourishes during this time selling stuff which adds difference to our displays. And as you might have guessed it right, we nag our parents to get new stuff and decorate our Golu (stacking of idols and dolls) and make it different from others!

As we still grew old and started learning music lessons, we eagerly wait for the Navarathri time to grab audience attention by singing songs and put our singing capabilities to test. I have to say that though I do not have a mellifluous or clarity voice, or even a good singer, I have never shied away from singing. I have always liked to sing at each home and wanted to learn more in order not to repeat songs. I believe this festival have slowly inculcated the fond of singing in me, irrespective of whether people like it or not! ;-) These childhood days have brought my heart closer to God and the devoted singing enabled me to get even more closer.

After many years of my childhood school days, when I had started my career, I could not find time to spend at home during Navarathri. Once, when I happened to visit my Aunt's (father's sister) home during Navarathri, I visited few homes nearby with my aunt. There were some differences in my experience then from my childhood. The most astonishing was, there was never a request placed to sing a song!With my innate passion to sing songs during Navarathri, I myself offered to sing some songs of Ganapathi, Devi (Goddess), Krishna. I could not resist myself but sing, as I enjoyed it and believed it as my offering to God.

When I retrospect now about my childhood days during Navarathri, I could realize how it transformed from a sundal delicacy driven festival to devoted singing. This thought adds up to my assurance, that all our rituals and practices had an inner motive of reaching(realizing) the highest Truth and Navarathri is surely the best of them from my experience.

Kanchi Paramacharya HH Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Swamigal, has mentioned the significance of Navarathri Golu (idols and dolls stacking). We used to keep idols of Gods and Goddesses (like Ganapathi, Krishna, Rama, Durga, Saraswathi) in the top one or two rows of the Golu steps, which is followed later with saints and holy men (like Meera Bai, Vivekananda) and then some human dolls (like our exciting marriage dolls, cricket set) followed by some animal dolls (ah, yes yes our self created park of animals). Paramacharya shared the insight on this idols and dolls arrangement as the steps to reach higher Self.  If human beings have good thoughts and do good to others, they will be raised to great men, then to saints and finally merge with God. On the other hand, if they tend to have bad thoughts and do evil to others they will go down to the animal level step by step.

The steps in the Navarathri Golu therefore convey us a message of reaching the higher Self by taking each good step in our lives. Hmm, perhaps I have started this Navarathri journey with sundal and have now reached at devoted singing step. More steps for me to go forward to reach (realize) God. I am sure you would have enjoyed your journey towards God through your steps. During this festive occasion, let us pray God to bestow us with energy and faith to take more steps towards Him.

Here is a Navarathri Golu photo of my friend Geetha.



Picture credits: (Geetha Vijay)

Surprising similarities!

I was surprised on listening to some similarities in culture among people from entirely different geographies! Especially at a time when there is no ways of communication across countries and borders. But these similarities could substantiate the theory that human minds could think alike even when distanced apart and does not need any communication tools.

And, the similarities I observed from the two cultures is of course from my motherland India and resident land Finland. One of my colleagues in Finland, had arranged for a team get together in his family owned country side Inn. I got to visit the museum portraying the place's historical roots and the Finnish's cultural highlight "smoke sauna". It was interesting to see the lantern used in the early days, to find the way to sauna which is few meters from the Inn. The lantern looked very similar to those used during my childhood days in India. I am sure these are designed many decades or even centuries before but I wonder how people came up with similar designs, or perhaps settled with this design after many other improper ones.

Then during the dinner time, I was surprised to listen to the Finnish tradition of using "rye-juuri" meaning "root of rye", to prepare Finnish's famous rye breads. They believe some angel would have bestowed them the original rye-juuri and it has been passed along all these years. This rye-juuri is added in small quantities while making bread and is preserved in a container for later use. It seems breads which are prepared without using it is not tasting good. And we had a good round of laughter, when we heard that this rye-juuri could also be bought from super markets! :-) I supplemented the discussion saying that we also have this kind of tradition in India to make curd (yogurt), wherein we save some used curd to prepare curd for the coming days. The obvious question of how the first curd prepared, remains a mystery (at least to me)!

Then the old lady of the house popped in and shared the practice of making "viili" a form of yogurt, in the olden days. They had also added used viili  to milk and prepared new viili and similarly the first viili remains a mystery. The old lady was also telling that they used to hang these viilis in a mud container from the ceiling roof to get it fermented. Ah, this reminds me of the picture of Krishna taking curd and butter from the containers hanging from the roof.

From this short chat about lives in Finland and India, I could observe these few interesting similarities in people's practices in those olden days, despite lack of communication with each other. I am sure there could be many more which might reveal interesting information, like how people's thinking evolves based on the living circumstances and the needs. Perhaps after many tests and trials, people eventually might have settled with the best possible results which could have been same across various regions!